by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES - In most people's eyes, the penalties will end Wednesday, with another recruiting class that's well shy of a full haul. Technically, the NCAA sanctions end in June. In reality, they'll hang around USC for a while longer, in the form of a depleted roster.

"We'll probably feel the effects of those sanctions for two more seasons, quite honestly," Steve Sarkisian says.

That's not an excuse, by the way. Sarkisian fully understands the expectations, which if anything have only been heightened â?? or at least, highlighted â?? by what Pete Carroll's current team just accomplished. Seattle's Super Bowl victory resembled nothing so much as, say, that 2005 Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma for the BCS national championship. That's the standard.

It's why, even as USC gets set to sign only 14 players â?? added to five mid-year enrollees, the total is 19 â?? and expects to enter next season with just 70 scholarships filled, the new coach is projecting a rapid return to relevance. In addition to their committed prospects, the Trojans enter signing day still in contention for two players in the Rivals.com top 25, defensive backs Adoree' Jackson and John Smith.

"I think we're competing for the Pac-12 South championship," Sarkisian says. "I really believe that. You watch our starting 22 take the field next fall, it's gonna be really good."

The issue might be the next 22, and the next. Remember when USC seemed to stack five-star recruits atop five-star recruits, then let them duel every day to see who would play? That's Sarkisian's plan, too, when he has enough players to do it. If it's familiar, it should be. The approach is ripped, unapologetically, right from the pages of Carroll's "Win Forever" playbook.

Of course, that was also part of the idea four years ago when Carroll left and Lane Kiffin, like Sarkisian a former Carroll assistant, was hired. That didn't work out so well.

And at least in the short term, Sarkisian is likely to be measured against Ed Orgeron, who revitalized the program in a 6-2 stint last season as interim coach after Kiffin was fired. "Coach O" badly wanted the permanent gig â?? and was the players' favorite, too. On the early December day Sarkisian was hired, Orgeron met with the Trojans in an early morning meeting. Tears were shed. If he appeared devastated, players were, too.

"That's the lowest I've seen this team in a long time," junior quarterback Cody Kessler says. "They were very down, and it's totally understandable. What (Orgeron) did for this program in a short time was nothing short of amazing. These guys loved playing for him."

Thus, the bar for Sarkisian's introduction to the team, which took place later that night, was set pretty high. Sarkisian says he knew what he might be walking into. He had met with his Washington team â?? "I never want to have that meeting again," he says, "I can tell you that" â?? then flown to Los Angeles. And he knew it was important to meet with his new team as soon as possible.

"I knew I wasn't gonna go in there and just wow 'em," he says. "I knew I wasn't gonna go in there and they were all gonna stand up and applaud or come up and give me a hug, but I wanted them to know who I was, what I was about â?¦ and to just kind of drop my guard as soon as I could."

After a few minutes, Sarkisian asked everyone to clear the room except for players. He took off his coat, then his tie and put on a USC hoodie. Then he began asking players what they knew of him. With some players, there was familiarity from the recruiting process (Kessler, for example, says he was "10 minutes away from going to Washington").

"Coach Sark came in and probably did about as good a job as you could have," Kessler says. "He handled it perfect. â?¦ You could see guys felt better and more comfortable that this guy wasn't gonna come in and be totally different than we wanted in a coach."

Totally different might seem very familiar to longtime USC observers. With some limitations because of NCAA compliance issues, Sarkisian plans to reopen some spring and preseason practices to the public â?? similar to the policy when Carroll was there â?? in hopes of rekindling the program's aura.

"There's something as a player (about) going to practice, knowing people are there and people are going to be there to watch you," Sarkisian says. "That's what fuels you as a competitor. â?¦ I think it serves as a really cool motivator for our players, day in and day out, to come out and compete."

Given the roster limitations and resulting depth issues, they'll have to be very careful. But Sarkisian says he watched perhaps 30 Seahawks practices over the last few years since Carroll's arrival there. Those, with a 53-man roster and an eight-man practice squad, will serve as a model for the Trojans.

"Their practices are still very upbeat," Sarkisian says. "There's a lot of tempo. Guys are flying around. When they go 'good on goods,' they compete like crazy, but they're smart."

The sanctions end soon enough. And the new coach has a prediction.

"I think this," Sarkisian says. "When we come out of this thing, I think it's truly gonna show the power of USC, because there are not many schools, if any, that could have withstood (the sanctions) in the matter and fashion that USC did. â?¦ I credit the previous coaching staff for finding their way through it. And now we have an opportunity to show how powerful USC is as we continue to take the next steps toward winning another championship."